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How to use Canva to Create an Inspirational Poster

2/18/2018

In a previous blog post, I mentioned that Canva is a great tool to use to create your own poster. So for this post, I thought it might be fun to show you how easy it is to make your own inspirational Poster for your wall using Canva.com.

Create a Free Canva Account

When you create a free Canva account, you get access to free images, fonts, layouts, and a full range of easy to use design tools.
To create a free account go to Canva.com and complete the signup process.

After you create your account, you will see a welcome screen. Follow the on-screen prompts to complete the signup process. I recommend you take the short tutorial to become familiar with the basics.

The Welcome Screen

When you sign into Canva (after the initial setup), you are presented with the following screen.

Refer to the numbered comments below for an explanation of each numbered section in the image:

This is a set of design templates you can use to create specially sized designs. The template you choose will be sized according to the type of project.

Create a design will expand the designs (same result as clicking More….)

All your designs is where Canva stores your creations. Once you save a design, it will appear here.

Feel free to explore the other links to see what they do

Select a Design Template

Now that you are more familiar with the screen click on Create a design, scroll down to Marketing Materials, and select Poster. Below is a quick video demo of what it looks like in the system.

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Design Your Inspirational Poster

Let’s use one of the Canva layouts that we see on the left side of the screen to create our first Poster.

Choose a Layout

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At this point, you can use one of the images provided in Canva, or you can upload your own picture. I like the quote on the layout we’ve selected, but I want to use my own picture. So I’m going to upload a pic from my computer.

Find an Image

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Once you upload an image to Canva, you have access to it in your Uploads. You can also use your Facebook photos by clicking on the Facebook icon, signing into your account, and uploading your photos. If you decide to buy images from Canva, you will have access to them in the Purchased folder.

Add an Image to Your Poster

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Select the existing image with your cursor and then hit the Delete button on your keyboard to delete the image.

Drag your image from Uploads to the image frame and drop it in.

Click Crop to adjust the image inside the frame.

Add the Finishing Touches to Your Poster

You can make all kinds of cool design changes to your poster using the tools listed at the top of the image workspace.

We already used Crop to adjust our image. So let’s see what a few of the other options do just for fun.

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I noticed that the text on my pic wasn’t showing up the way I wanted. After trying out a few of the filters, I decided to adjust the brightness and contrast to make my text pop. I really like the way the image colors were intensified when I made these changes!

Download Your Poster Image

Click the Download button in the top right section of the Page and select the folder where you want to save your new poster image.

Print Your Poster

Now all you have to do iis upload your poster to posterburner.com and follow a few simple steps to create a gorgeous Inspirational Poster for your wall.